Black Maria Film Festival Visits SOPL

Perhaps in a different time, John Columbus would have been called a traveling minstrel. Today he's known as the founder and director of a highly esteemed film and video festival, the Black Maria (Muh-rye-uh). A selection of films from the 29th annual festival will be presented at the South Orange Library on April 13 at 7 p.m.

Since 1981, Columbus has toured the country, visiting as many as 60 venues annually to show audiences award-winning short films that they would otherwise not have the opportunity to view. Columbus is a walking, talking commercial for his film tour. His delight in what has, over the years, become his full-time job is apparent when he shares his own film background and the festival's history with a twinkle in his eyes.

After receiving an M.F.A. from Columbia University, Columbus realized he was more of a filmmaker than film scholar. He's an Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he taught filmmaking and film concepts for 27 years. Since his college days, he's made short films. About five years ago, the Museum of Modern Art presented his most recent work, "Corona."

"It's about growing up in New Jersey, the Jersey Shore and an idiosyncratic family with a mother who was oppressed by her own religion," said Columbus. He added that the film is based on his own life experience.

Columbus thinks of short films as poems and long ones as novels. He makes the case for his preferred medium of expression: "The short film is a freer form… more open kind of film. Film isn't necessarily based on scripts. When making short films, a filmmaker can sometimes take more chances and work visually by collecting images with the camera first."

Thomas Edison National Park, where Columbus initially saw the famous inventor's Black Maria Film Studio, is just 1 ½ miles from the home that he and his wife Ellen moved to in 1980. At that time, he was commuting to New Rochelle, working at a children's museum there. With no money in the museum budget for a film series that he proposed, Columbus took heart. He wrote a letter to the head curator at the Edison museum in which he presented his idea for the Black Maria: a competition for an open, juried film festival for short works. It was accepted. After getting start-up funding, the festival program quickly took off.

Columbus had given the festival its name to pay tribute to Thomas Edison. In 1893, Edison built the world's first motion picture studio at the site of the Edison National Park. The tar-papered studio was thought to resemble a police paddy wagon, then called a Black Maria. The name stuck with Edison for his little movie house. The inventor had a penchant for making short films, much like Columbus. And so the name stuck for him, too.

Out of 600 submissions this year, 70 were chosen for the festival by Columbus and jurors from the Museum of Modern Art, The New School and Lascaux Micro-Theater in Virginia. Past jurors include the Whitney Museum, the National Gallery of Art and Columbia University. Jurors select one-third of the films from an online service to filmmakers that shows what festivals are upcoming.

"I tailor the kinds of films shown at each venue," said Columbus. "At Bennington College, I show films made by women. At the Rhode Island School of Design, I show animation. At the National Gallery of the Arts, films on the arts are best."

Although the festival makes its way to large venues, Columbus prefers the intimacy of the smaller ones, such as the South Orange Library, where his wife is the head of adult services. "When the library program coordinator, Phyllis Kalb, found out that I ran the festival, she called me right away," he said, with a smile.

Twice, the festival has received Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts via the New Jersey Council on the Arts. That honor, and being interviewed on NPR radio, have been rewarding accomplishments.

The Charles Edison fund has been a major supporter of the festival since it began, along with other state and national endowments. Unfortunately, the Geraldine Dodge Foundation has cut off its financial contributions to the festival after being a major supporter for 26 years.

Among the films to be shown at the South Orange Library are "Pickles for Nickels," "The Regular," "Never Too Late," "The Train Home" and "Missed Aches."
    
Visit www.blackmariafestival.org for more information.